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No. This is normal in the US. Severance pay is rare.

No, not correct. If it's in your employment agreement then yes (rare). If the company is nice, or feels bad for you then yes. But otherwise they have no obligation to do so.

PS. This is US.

Other countries especially france have different rules.

In states with at-will employment your job can be terminated - by either side - with no notice (hence no obligation for severance), with some exceptions against illegal discrimination (e.g. being fired because you're black).

Most companies will offer you some sort of severance - or at least won't ask for their signing bonus/relocation/etc back, but that's out of goodwill, not legal obligation.

Self interest as well. Lots of companies want you to sign additional agreements on the way out (don't trash the computers, don't bad-mouth the company, etc.) and you have no reason to sign these if they don't give you something in return.

just what I was going to say. it his blog he mentioned they were faxing out some 'agreement' for him to sign. My immediate reaction was 'why the fuck would he sign anything?'.

Varies wildly from state to state, let alone country to country.